I have no idea where this show is going and it is making me more confused than ever before but I’m still intrigued.
The episode starts with Betty taking care of Archie while Jughead tells her about his Gargoyle King sighting. After Jughead saw him, he followed him to a clearing where ten of his disciples were wearing gargoyle masks and worshipping him. Archie walks up and thinks it could be Joaquin cause he told Kevin about a new gang before leaving. Betty and Jughead had a theory that Warden Norton was the Gargoyle King but now he’s dead, so there goes that theory.
Betty finds out about his suicide when she returns home and when her mother claims she didn’t know him, Betty discovers that Norton was the RROTC instructor at Riverdale High during the days of the Midnight Club. She then decides she has to get answers from the town’s parents.
While Betty works on getting the adults in one room, Archie tells Veronica about the Shadow Lake mines where he thinks the witnesses that put him behind bars are hiding. He wants to go there, but Veronica makes him promise to say in the bunker and she has her own plan. She goes through his case files for evidence of his innocence.
At school, Sheriff Minetta is giving a speech to the kids about how anyone who helped Archie escape is also a criminal and almost everyone who helped is in that room. Josie, also is a very bad liar and Minetta gets up in her face causing her to have a seizure.
While Jughead tasks the Serpents with finding Joaquin, Kevin realises that Archie’s wound is infected, so Betty suggests he bring him to the medical examiner. Betty has gathered all the parents in V’s speakeasy (she sent fake invitations from the Gargoyle King and they all came) for some answers. Someone in the room has to be a murderer, and Betty needs to know who it is.
Betty calls the parents out on their lies, like the fact that Reggie’s dad hits his son. Tom Keller (Kevin’s father) admits that Norton confiscated a game manual during his days as the RROTC instructor. Hiram claims that he had no idea that Norton was playing the game, and Hermione thinks Penelope is the murderer seeing as she was game master. However, Penelope says that Daryl Doiley was also a game master and was apparently in love with her. Penelope said he poisoned the chalice because he wanted them to ascend together but she said no. She then assumed they were emptied but they weren’t. Years later, Daryl confessed his love for Penelope, yet again, but when she refused him a second time, he killed himself. He was found sitting in a running car in his garage with his windows up.
Betty isn’t buying the story that he’s the murderer, but when FP finds out that his son is still playing the game, he’s done with Betty’s interrogation. FP leaves and the other parents decide to follow. FP heads home where he handcuffs Jughead to the fridge in order to ‘sober him up’ from his G&G addiction. It doesn’t last long as Betty comes to see him and frees him with a bobby pin. Once Betty frees Jughead, he leaves to go meet up with Fangs and Sweet Pea, who have found Joaquin. And Betty goes to check out Daryl Doiley’s autopsy report.
Meanwhile, the medical examiner fixes up Archie while Veronica realizes that the interrogation footage has all been edited. She goes to the mayor’s office to find the real footage and Archie and Kevin go to the Shadow Lake mines. But seeing as how Hiram called in a hit on those boys, Sheriff Minetta was able to kill them before Archie and Kevin could get there (wow, talk about corrupt people). Well, he killed all of them but one. Archie and Kevin took the survivor to the hospital but he was unable to be saved.
Veronica is able to find the video and send it to herself before she is arrested for breaking into her mother’s office. She calls Fred to tell him to go after Archie, and he calls attorney McCoy to get Veronica out of jail. Furthermore, McCoy uses the video that Veronica found to get Archie his freedom!
Then we deal with Joaquin, who was found wearing a gargoyle mask. Joaquin tells Jughead about the quest cards that Warden Norton was following, and he explains that the symbol on Archie’s hip means sacrifice (in other words, Archie has to die). Jughead asks who was sending the quest cards and Joaquin says he saw Hiram meet with the warden. Jughead, naturally, marches into Hiram’s office to accuse him of being the Gargoyle King. Hiram says that the Gargoyle King isn’t real and if he wants to look for a murderer, he suggests Clifford Blossom, Hal Cooper, Tom Keller or even his dad, FP. He claims they are all ‘solid suspects’ and tells Jughead to leave.
At the morgue, Betty reads Daryl Doiley’s autopsy report, and it turns out that he was already dead before he got into the car. He died from oleander which is a poisonous plant. The medical examiner is sure that Daryl was murdered, and honestly same. Betty than meets with Tom Keller who was the sheriff when Daryl died. She asks why he and the others have covered up the murder and Tom claims he was protecting them. He says that oleander is grown in Penelope Blossom’s greenhouse.
Penelope meets with Betty, where she explains that if she had killed Daryl, she wouldn’t have used oleander as it leaves traces. She also tells Betty that Alice wrote the article about his death, so she was also covering it up.
Betty returns home to ask her mom, but before Alice can answer, the power goes out. Then, magically, the Gargoyle King shows up in the living room. Alice and Betty run upstairs, where they find Daryl’s headstone and skeleton in Betty’s bed (who goes to that much trouble, though?). Someone has used spray paint to cross out Daryl’s name on it and has written in Betty and Alice’s. Just then FP sneaks in through the window of Betty’s room. Alice tells him the Gargoyle King is there and he hugs her which isn’t that helpful. Also, this entire scene is a parallel to Skeet Ulrich’s scenes in Scream.
Jughead finds Joaquin who is dead. Someone dropped off his body at the camp and it is complete with blue lips and the ‘sacrifice’ symbol on his forehead. Jughead knows he has to get to Archie.
Veronica is busy preparing his welcome back party but Archie calls and tells her that he can’t come home, even though he’s a free man and Sheriff Minetta is going to go to prison. Hiram is still out there, which means everyone Archie cares about is a target. Veronica tries to convince him to come home but instead, Archie says goodbye. He’s leaving town with Jughead who isn’t willing to let Archie out of his sight.
The episode ends with Alice deciding to head to the Farm, where she feels safe, and when Betty doesn’t want to go, Alice sends her daughter to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy where everyone is working on a portrait of the Gargoyle King, so obviously there’s something even more wrong with the Sisters than before.
Final Thoughts:
That ending! I can’t believe Alice is sending her there. Honestly, I have no words.
